Swan Song

by Christopher Wormell, J. Patrick Lewis, Cleo Qian

Poems by renowned children's poet J. Patrick Lewis are evocatively illustrated by Christopher Wormell's wood engravings to commemorate the lives and deaths of 20 of the hundreds of animals species... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1568461755
• ISBN13: 9781568461755
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Creative Company
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 8.8" x 12.3"
• Age Range: 8 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 3 and higher

Customer Reviews

Tragic, beautiful, plaintive

Witty, smart, sad, these poems give respect to each of the species they speak of. The dodo, the elephant bird, Stellar's Sea Cow, the Blue Buck (huh?!), each one briefly describes the extinct animal. But the poems aren't goopy or even too sad; they capture the line of reality in all its tragedy. Here's a sample from "The Blue Buck": Blue beauty was a burden - in A country coated tan - For you, a brilliant animal Advertisement to man. Old sun sprawls over Africa; New rains that fall are few. Once upon a time there was An antelope in blue. Only one drawback for this book: sometimes the elegant black & white illustrations are split across the page. But most are whole.